by Lee Higgins, The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News

by Lee Higgins, The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- Malcolm Shabazz, the 28-year-old grandson of slain civil rights leader Malcolm X, had worked to establish his own identity in recent years, having long struggled to reconcile his legacy with his famous grandfather's.

But the former Mount Vernon and Yonkers resident was ultimately unable to outrun the turmoil and violence that had plagued him since childhood: numerous arrests and prison sentences and four years in a juvenile jail for setting a 1997 Yonkers fire that killed his grandmother, Betty Shabazz.

On Thursday, he died in Mexico City, reportedly from wounds he received in a bar fight.

"We are deeply saddened by the passing of our beloved El Hajj Malcolm El Shabazz," his family said in a statement released through family friend Terrie M. Williams. "To all who knew him, he offered kindness, encouragement and hope for a better tomorrow. Although his bright light and boundless potential are gone from this life, we are grateful that he now rests in peace in the arms of his grandparents and the safety of God. We will miss him."

Democratic state Sen. Ruth Hassell-Thompson, a close friend of the late Betty Shabazz, said living up to his grandfather's name must have been difficult for the 28-year-old.

"He was an international figure, his grandfather. That's a tremendous legacy for all of them," she said. "We think that children can adapt to everything, and sometimes we think that because we want them to."

Martin Suarez, a labor activist who was in Mexico with Shabazz, told The Associated Press on Friday that the fight broke out after the bar's owner insisted that Shabazz pay a $1,200 bill. Suarez said he found Shabazz injured outside the bar and took him to a hospital. He later died there of his injuries, Suarez said.

Shabazz had traveled to Mexico to meet with Miguel Suarez, the leader of the activist group RUMEC, an acronym for Revolutionary United Mexicans in Combat. Suarez was deported to Mexico from California on April 18. On Friday, family members were making travel plans to claim the body, a Shabazz family spiritual adviser said.

"He's really just a youngster, a very young man who was just struggling to get his life moving on a forward-looking track," said Imam Al-Hajj Talib Abdur-Rashid of the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood in Harlem. "He was always concerned about forging his own path. I'm just sad that things turned out the way they did."

Mount Vernon Mayor Ernest Davis has known the Shabazz family for decades and, for a time, lived near the family home on Fifth Street. He said the last time he saw Malcolm Shabazz was when the young man returned from prison several years ago after serving time for a robbery in Orange County.

"I feel sad and conflicted for them," Davis said of the family. "He could have been a very positive force."

Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), who has known Shabazz for several years, said Shabazz regularly spoke at Islamic centers around the country, educating children of immigrants from the Middle East and South Asia about Malcolm X and the civil rights movement.

"He was a young man who was fighting his own past and trying to get himself together, and he was a very young and rising activist," Walid said. "By him striving to turn his life around, he was a huge influence on hundreds if not thousands of Muslims in our country."

Shabazz is known for intentionally starting a fire that killed his grandmother, Malcolm X's widow, Betty Shabazz, 63, in Yonkers in 1997. Betty Shabazz was seriously injured in the blaze and died from those injuries three weeks later, on June 23, 1997.

Malcolm was 12 years old at the time and, after pleading guilty to second-degree arson and second-degree manslaughter, was sentenced to 18 months in an out-of-state juvenile facility.

Walid said Shabazz missed his grandmother and was working to get his life on track.

In 2002, at age 17, he was sentenced to three years in a New York state prison after taking part in a violent street robbery in Middletown, Orange County.

In November 2006, Shabazz, then 22, admitted to smashing the window of a Dunkin' Donuts in Yonkers the previous August. He pleaded guilty to fourth-degree criminal mischief.

According to his blog, which was last updated on May 2, Shabazz had been traveling the United States and elsewhere, speaking about the "struggles that confront this generation." According to the site, which features a number of personal photographs, Shabazz also was working on a book.

Shabazz, also according to his blog, had not completely steered clear of law enforcement, even in his later years. As recently as February, he had run-ins with an FBI counter-terrorism unit, which, he claimed, had been investigating him for some time.

Officials at the FBI on Thursday were unable to comment on Shabazz's death or alleged investigations into his actions.

Salim Adofo, 30, of Washington, D.C., the vice chair of the National Black United Front, who has known Shabazz for seven years, said Shabazz traveled the world helping those oppressed, regardless of race.

"He still always had to live in the shadow of his grandfather," Adofo said. "He still carried some of the same truths that his grandfather did and he tried to work with those who were oppressed. He traveled all over the world. Wherever people were suffering, he was there."

Walid said he hopes Mexican and U.S. authorities would "do a thorough investigation of the cause of Shabazz's death." He described Shabazz as a modest dresser who didn't have sizable financial resources.

"I'm shocked about the passing of Malcolm and I find it very strange, in fact unlikely, that he would be beaten to death simply because of a robbery," Walid said.

Davis also said he was skeptical of the initial account of what happened to Shabazz.

"Knowing what I know about the workings of authorities, whether they're foreign or domestic, knowing he was high-profile, knowing he's creating enemies just by who he is, it's just very disquieting."